Onra - The Anthem

A random link from my friend one day led to my discovery of Onra. A Hip-hop beat-maker out of Paris traveled to Vietnam and brought back over 30 records of old Vietnamese and Chinese music. Onra sampled these albums into a 32 track album 'Chinoiseries' in 2006.

I had planned out a day to do some urban adventuring, so I bought this album on itunes to zone out to as I wandered around downtown. The album sunk deep into my conscious immediately, specifically 'The Anthem' (track 2), which really set the table for the rest of songs. The sampling from the 60s and 70s asian music gives birth to some of the best, unique and outlandish beats I've heard in a while. The album consists of short tracks that only run about 1-2 minutes each. The beats are enough to showcase what Onra can do, and are dying to be rapped over. Onra also works on some side projects and has a follow-up album 'Chinoiseries Pt. 2', which I've heard but haven't had time to absorb.

As a PS, I came across this remix by Flume, which I thought was an interesting spin on it. You can find it here